BILL NUMBER: SCR 51	CHAPTERED  09/21/99

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER   134
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   SEPTEMBER 21, 1999
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY   SEPTEMBER 9, 1999
	ADOPTED IN SENATE   SEPTEMBER 3, 1999
	AMENDED IN SENATE   SEPTEMBER 2, 1999

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Vasconcellos, Alpert, and Polanco

                        AUGUST 30, 1999

   Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 51--Relative to the Joint
Committee on Preparing California for the 21st Century.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 51, Vasconcellos.  Joint Committee on Preparing California for
the 21st Century.
   This measure would establish the Joint Committee on Preparing
California for the 21st Century with specified duties and
responsibilities.  The joint committee would be composed of 9 members
from each house of the Legislature. The joint committee would be
authorized to act until November 4, 2004, when its existence would
terminate.




   WHEREAS, California, as the rest of the United States and the rest
of the entire world, has been experiencing the most remarkable rapid
radical change in history, a period in which the only constant is
change and the greatest inconstant is the ever-increasing rate of
change; and
   WHEREAS, The resulting breakdown of old forms and disintegration
of community and disaffection of our people with government and its
institutions has left many, if not most, of us disoriented,
floundering, and desperately in need of discovering a way to regain
our bearings and to re-envision and create new forms to enable us to
come back together in community; and
   WHEREAS, Governor Gray Davis has created a Commission on Essential
Infrastructure for the 21st Century; and
   WHEREAS, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa has created a
Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century; and
   WHEREAS, Every bit as critical as infrastructure and governance
are the shared visions and values and the policies and programs they
inform which will altogether operate upon that infrastructure and
within that governance; and
   WHEREAS, The Legislature is the body that consists of the most
immediately elected representatives of all the people of California
in their various communities; and
   WHEREAS, The Legislature is charged with designing the policies
and programs that help enable Californians individually to realize
their potential and collectively to meet the challenges we face; and
   WHEREAS, It is therefore appropriate for the Legislature to
provide leadership in bringing all Californians together to recognize
the profound changes and challenges that face us, and to take a
long-term big picture look at how we can cope with these changes and
challenges and discern the most promising strategies for dealing with
them constructively; and
   WHEREAS, In searching for our best path into a better future for
all of us, we must especially take into account at least the
following seven major revolutions of our times that individually, and
even more convergently and cumulatively, profoundly affect our lives
and our future:
   (1) Technology--the furthest extension of our minds;
   (2) Gender--moving toward equity;
   (3) Race--as we become a no-majority state and people;
   (4) End of the Cold War--with no monolithic enemy to bind us
together;
   (5) Advent of the global economy--eroding national boundaries;
   (6) Movement into interactive communications and an information
and knowledge society;
   (7) Changing beliefs regarding our founding views of our own human
nature and potential, freedom, growth, and self-esteem and
responsibility; and
   WHEREAS, In searching out and designing our new path, we must
build upon at least the following three historic sea changes we're
experiencing:
   (1) Our shift toward a multicultural society;
   (2) Our shift from a manufacturing economy to an information,
knowledge, and services economy;
   (3) Our shift to a culture of greater individuality, diversity,
and freedom; and
   WHEREAS, The Legislature ought to lead the people of California in
a public dialogue regarding the most profound cross-cutting changes
and challenges, including, but not limited to, race, diversity,
technology, learning, families, health, communities, violence, aging,
and environmental sustainability, facing us as we move into the 21st
century; and
   WHEREAS, It is incumbent upon the California Legislature to launch
a smart, comprehensive, credible effort to create a high-profile,
big-picture, broadly inclusive enterprise that will serve to bring
all Californians together to more fully recognize and appreciate the
challenges of our times, and to more smartly collaborate in designing
an inspiring vision and a comprehensive, substantive, strategic, and
programmatic agenda that will fully prepare us to meet our
challenges in the 21st century; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California
for the 21st Century is hereby established and authorized to actively
engage the Legislature and the State of California and the people of
California in a broad-scale, big-picture, public dialogue that will
best prepare all of us to do the following:
   (1) Meet our emerging and growing challenges as we move into the
21st century.
   (2) Keep California the leading state, both economically and
societally.
   (3) Recognize and meet our greatest challenge:  to realize the
promise of our multicultural democracy, with gender equity, in the
global economy, in the age of technology; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century shall design its operation so that it does the
following:
   (1) Operates in the most prominent manner that maximizes the
involvement of most of our people.
   (2) Gains the highest visibility and credibility.
   (3) Develops widespread confidence and buy-in by the people of
California into its processes, deliberations, findings, and policy
recommendations.
   (4) Adopts an agenda that addresses the most compelling major
challenges facing us and meets those criteria.
   (5) Has the capacity to translate its recommendations into
reality, both in legislation and other forms of implementation; and
be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century shall enlist as full-fledged active partners in this
process the leaders of the other most influential institutions of our
state, including the following:
   (1) All key stakeholders in the well-being of California.
   (2) Every major racial and ethnic community, especially as
California becomes a no-majority state.
   (3) California's premier universities and colleges, especially
their research facilities.
   (4) California's major media leaders.
   (5) Representatives of California's divergent belief systems and
ideologies.
   (6) California's communities of faith.
   (7) California's business and economic development enterprises.
   (8) California's social and human development enterprises.
   (9) California's major age cohorts, including both the most senior
of our citizens and the most junior (students); and be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century shall consist of nine members from each of the two
houses of the Legislature, including the following:
   (1) The President pro Tempore and Minority Leader of the Senate,
or their designees.
   (2) The Speaker and Minority Leader of the Assembly, or their
designees.
   (3) The Senate and Assembly chairs and vice-chairs of each
standing policy committee that has the jurisdiction over the
particular subject matter that the joint committee is exploring at
any given time.
   (4) Five other members from each house of the Legislature,
hopefully diverse as to gender, race, geography, and political party;
and be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century and its members shall have and exercise all of the
rights, duties, and powers conferred upon investigating committees
and their members by the provisions of the Joint Rules of the Senate
and Assembly as they are adopted and amended from time to time; and
be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century may contract, subject to the approval of the Senate
Committee on Rules and the Assembly Committee on Rules, with other
agencies, public or private, as necessary to obtain services or
studies that will assist the committee in carrying out its
responsibilities; and be it further
   Resolved, That, in the spirit of modeling the partnership and
collaboration that will become ever more critical as we seek to meet
our challenges and improve our future, the Senate Committee on Rules
and the Speaker of the Assembly shall each name one cochair,
preferably diverse as to gender, race, and geography, of the Joint
Committee for Preparing California for the 21st Century; and be it
further
   Resolved, That the Senate Committee on Rules and the Assembly
Committee on Rules shall each make available from the Senate
Operating Fund and the Assembly Operation Fund an equal amount of
money together sufficient as deemed necessary for the expenses of the
Joint Committee on Preparing California for the 21st Century and its
members, and that any expenditure of money shall be made in
compliance with policies set forth by the Senate Committee on Rules
and the Assembly Committee on Rules and subject to approval by the
respective Rules committee; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century shall, within 15 days of authorization, and consistent
with the normal annual appropriations process for funding legislative
committees, present its initial budget to the Senate Committee on
Rules and to the Assembly Committee on Rules for their review,
comment, and approval; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century shall submit a report at the end of each calendar year
to the Legislature on its activities and recommendations to date; and
be it further
   Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the
21st Century is authorized to act until November 30, 2004, at which
time the committee's existence shall terminate.
